Kei Nishikori vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime

Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 4:00 AM (Real Club de Tenis Barcelona)

The Line: -- Over/Under:

TV: Tennis

Kei Nishikori and Felix Auger-Aliassime meet in the third round of the 2019 tennis Barcelona.

Kei Nishikori is coming off a straight sets win over Taylor Fritz that took 20 games to decide. In the victory, Nishikori won 67 percent of his first serve points and 53 percent of his second serve points. Nishikori won 62 percent of his total service points and converted on four of his seven break points. Nishikori looked sharp for a player who enters this tournament on a three-match losing streak, as his serve was consistent and he attacked the return with confidence. We’ll see if Nishikori can build on such a performance, as this has been an up and down year up to to this point. Nishikori has a chance to win back-to-back matches for the first time since Rotterdam back in February. Nishikori has won seven of his last 10 matches on clay court.

Felix Auger-Aliassime is coming off a straight sets win over Malek Jaziri that took 22 games to decide. In the victory, Auger-Aliassime won 77 percent of his first serve points and 60 percent of his second serve points. Auger-Aliassime won 72 percent of his total service points and converted on two of his five break points. Auger-Aliassime got 70 percent of his first serves in play and was only broken once, a formula that gives him a fighting chance in this match as well. Auger-Aliassime hopes to wi nat least two matches for the fifth time in his last six tournaments. Auger-Aliassime has just one career win over a top-10 player, which came this year over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Indian Wells. Auger-Aliassime has won four of his last six matches on clay court.

There’s no match history between these two players.

Auger-Aliassime is a young player who is clearly on the rise and has the raw talent to win a match like this. The problem is Auger-Aliassime can still make silly unforced errors due to inexperience, and that’s something Nishikori will pounce on if given the opportunity. You have to play clean tennis to beat a quality player on a respectable stage like this, and I’m not sure Auger-Aliassime is at that level just yet.

I have more confidence in Nishikori.

Randy’s PickKei Nishikori

The pick in this article is the opinion of the writer, not a Sports Chat Place site consensus.

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